Monday, March 12, 2007

Kaayam churna or Gaayab churna?

Kaayam churna or Gaayab churna?
RTI unearths corruption in the procurement of medical supplies in a PSU


Should you happen to casually walk into a primary health centre in any of India’s small towns what kinds of medicines would you expect to find stocked on its shelves? Life saving medicines for treating snake bites and rabies? Paracetamol and antibiotics for those suffering from some water borne infection? Vaccines for inoculating babies from life-threatening diseases? Tablets and injections for those suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes? Think again. If you happened to visit one of the primary health centres run by the South Eastern Coal Fields Ltd. you might just stumble upon hair oils, massage oils and even, believe it or not, aphrodisiacs euphemistically called vitality restoring tonics. Or perhaps you would find them only on paper – shown as ayurvedic medicines purchased at exorbitant rates.

Rumours of corruption in SECL are neither rare nor recent. Until the coming of the RTI Act people had no way of verifying these allegations spoken in hushed tones. After all SECL has been proudly announcing on its website its unique record of earning profits ever since its inception in 1986. This public sector undertaking is the single largest producer of coal amongst the eight subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd. In 2005-06 alone SECL extracted 83.02 million tons of coal from its mines situated in the districts of Shahdol, Umaria and Anuppur in Madhya Pradesh and Bilaspur, Korba, Koria, Raigadh and Surguja in Chhattisgarh. SECL has claimed total sales worth Rs. 7127.19 crores during the same year, and earned a pre-tax profit of Rs. 1,286 crores (post tax profit = Rs. 264.67 crores). One would hail a company with such an impeccable earning record as a shining example of the robustness of the fast shrinking public sector in India. But a team of committed citizens have begun shining the torch of RTI on dark deeds within SECL seemingly buried away underneath mountains of coal dust.

Sunil Chaurasia and Narendra Devangan both belonging to Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh and Satish Gupta of Manendragarh from Koria district of Chhattisgargh filed RTI applications with the PIO of SECL situated at its head office in Bilaspur during the months of February – April 2006. They sought the following information–

1) Names of all medicines procured by SECL for distribution through its primary health centres and its OPD clinics in the Hasdev coal mines area during the financial year 2005-06. (They cater exclusively to the employees of SECL and their families)
2) Quantity of medicines procured during the same period.
3) Supply price of each item.
4) Copies of all purchase orders issued by SECL for these medicines.
5) Name and contact details of suppliers who bagged the purchase order.

All three applicants received the requested information within the 30 day deadline stipulated in the RTI Act. The records showed that SECL had issued two purchase orders worth a total of Rs. 4,47,422/- to a certain R S Trading Company on 02 November 2005 for supplying ayurvedic medicines such as rajwadi chyawanprash, basant kusumakar ras, svarna bhasm, massage oil, divya hair oil, sona-chandi chyawanprash, shilajit capsule, paurush jeevan capsule, chintagani ras, makardhani vari and many other ayurvedic items :
(P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedicmedicines/479 and P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedicmedicines/480).

Two more purchasing orders were issued on the same day to two more companies namely, Messrs. Sampath Kumar Lakshminarayan of Manendragarh in Chhattisgarh (P.O.#SECL/HSDArea/MMW/SO/05/06/Ayurvedic medicines/482 ) and Soni Medical Store of Dhanpuri in Madhya Pradesh (P.O. SECL/HSD/MMW/SO/O5/06/Ayurvedic medicines/481) for supply of ayurvedic medicines worth – Rs. 99,786.90 and Rs. 1,20,387.50 respectively. Apart from the medicines mentioned above these companies were asked to supply jhandu soap herbal, trishul tablets, kamoddeepak churna (can it be any more explicit than this), sundari kalp forte, rose water and the commonly used disinfectants like savlon, dettol and phenyle. All P.O.s had been signed by the Chief General Manager.

Armed with these documents our RTI trio worked for several weeks crosschecking the data along with a team of about 25 committed volunteers. The P.O.s issued to R S Trading Company mentioned its contact details as a shop situated behind State Bank of India at Manendragarh, Chhattisgarh. Satish scoured the entire area but did not find any trace of the supplier. Soni Medical Store turned out to be a small retailing store operating on a floor space of 10ftx10ft and the salesperson had no clue about the supply of such a huge order. Fictitious companies were shown as suppliers of luxury items in the name of procurement of medical supplies.

Next, the volunteers cross checked the rates at which the medicines had been supplied only to find that the retail outlets sold the same items a lot cheaper. Given below is a comparative table of the retail rates and the rate at which the medicines were supplied to SECL:-

Item Size Retail rate in Rupees SECL Supply Rate in Rupees
Amrutanjan balm 10gm 15/- 20/-
Kayam churna 100gm 33/- 46/-
Paurush Jeevan capsule Strip of 10 20/- 28/-
Sesha hair oil 100ml 88/- 185/-
Sona chandi chyawanprash 1kg 185/- 280/-
-do- 1/2kg 105/- 155/-
Rose water 30ml 10/- 15/-
Banphool oil 200ml 68/- 96/-
Noorani oil 100ml 30/- 44/-
Jaitul oil 50ml 30/- 35/-
Rajwadi chyawanprash 1kg 340/- 440/-
-do- 1/2kg 187/- 250/-
Aglari 100ml 33/- 47/-
Savlon 100ml 23/- 25/-
Dettol 100ml 17/- 21/-
Phenyle 500ml 33/- 56/-

Only one item, namely, Trishul tablets were supplied at a price lower slightly lower than the retail price (Rs. 8/- and Rs. 10/- respectively). During 2005-06, SECL had allocated Rs. 99,78,690/- for its medical budget. The total value of the four purchase orders released under the RTI Act was Rs. 6.67 lakhs. The extent of money lost due to corruption remains to be calculated.

Sunil published the details of these findings in the Koylanchal Times a current affairs magazine popular in the coal mining belt of MP and Chhattisgarh that he published every month. In August, officials of the Vigilance unit of SECL contacted him to hear learn first hand, the story of the findings of the RTI team. Nothing much was heard for a few months afterwards. Upon making informal enquiries with SECL about the progress of the case Sunil found out that the Vigilance unit had instituted a formal investigation. The Chief Finance Manager and the Materials Manager seem to have been chargesheeted in the case and inquiry proceedings are said to be going on.

Sunil, Narendra, Satish and their team of volunteers are elated at these developments. Their painstaking efforts have awakened potential whistleblowers within SECL. An employee of the company in the Hasdev mines area, who spoke with the activists on condition of anonymity, told them that they had merely succeeded in scratching the surface. Corruption in the procurement of medical supplies is deeper and murkier than what has been unearthed. It has been alleged that several batches of medicines supplied to the OPDs and PHCs are well past the expiry date or will become useless in less than six months. The activists are now planning to request spot inspection of the stock of medicines to verify the facts themselves. They are also planning to apply to the Vigilance unit of SECL under the RTI Act seeking a progress report of action taken on the basis of their findings.

Narrative:- Dr. Rakesh Ranjan, Convenor, MPSAA and Venkatesh Nayak, CHRI

{Sunil, Narendra, Satish and their team of volunteers are all active members of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan (MPSAA). CHRI works with the Abhiyan to spread awareness about RTI in Madhya Pradesh.}